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As longtime sommeliers at Boulevard restaurant in San Francisco, John Lancaster and Robert Perkins have been serving fancy wines each evening: grand cru Burgundy, prestigious Chateauneuf du Pape, cult California Cabernets. However when the 2 determined to make their very own wine, they wished to go in the wrong way.
“All of the costly wines would drive us loopy,” says Perkins. There was a surplus of wonderful wines on the excessive finish of the worth spectrum, however a paucity on the decrease finish, they mentioned. Quite than make one more costly bottle, they figured they may assist fill a spot that wine consumers like them wanted stuffed, by turning out wines that have been easy-drinking, nicely made and reasonably priced.
That was 17 years in the past. Ever since, Lancaster and Perkins have been turning out constantly scrumptious bottles beneath their Skylark label. Amongst their most profitable is a Rhone-inspired mix referred to as Purple Stomach, which sells for $20 or much less.
“The concept for Purple Stomach was simply to make one thing user-friendly and versatile,” says Lancaster, who remains to be the wine director at Boulevard. (Perkins left the restaurant just a few years in the past to focus fulltime on Skylark.)
Particularly, they have been aiming for one thing like a Cotes du Rhone, a crimson mix from France’s southern Rhone Valley that tends to be juicy, fruity and approachable. Cotes du Rhone wines come from much less well-known areas of the Rhone Valley than their more-expensive counterpart, Chateauneuf du Pape, however what they lack in status they typically make up for in homey allure.
Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre are normally parts of a Cotes du Rhone wine. When Perkins and Lancaster got down to make Purple Stomach, they rapidly discovered vineyards the place they may purchase some Syrah and Grenache grapes, however finding Mourvedre proved tougher. In order that they determined to diverge a bit of bit from the Cotes du Rhone template.
As a substitute of Mourvedre, they ended up discovering a winery supply for Carignan, a grape selection that’s widespread in Spain and southern France. It’s not precisely a Mourvedre lookalike — Carignan lacks the savory, meaty notes which are typical in Mourvedre — however it matches the invoice for an assertive, medium-bodied crimson wine with darkish fruit flavors. Carignan can also be plentiful in Mendocino County, making their Carignan-Syrah-Grenache mix a distinctly Californian riff on the French recipe.
I not too long ago opened a bottle of Skylark’s 2016 Purple Stomach and located it to be a super crimson for this time of yr, as we method Memorial Day: hearty sufficient to face as much as grilled meals however mild sufficient to stay refreshing on a scorching day. It smells like strawberries and thyme, with zesty, spicy flavors of black pepper and a bitter, darkish cherry. Easy, silky tannins maintain it from feeling too heavy. The wine could be very quaffable.
It fulfills one of many standards that Perkins says was most necessary to the 2 somms-turned-winemakers. “I at all times take into consideration after I’m tableside and I’ve two prospects, one having the salmon, one having the steak, and so they need the right bottle to go along with each dishes,” he says. “I like discovering these wines that match the mark, that may be within the center.”
Purple Stomach and the opposite Skylark wines will likely be again on the wine record at Boulevard as soon as it reopens; the restaurant is presently present process a renovation. Within the meantime, both the 2016 or 2017 classic of the wine is obtainable from the Skylark website, plus the next San Francisco retailers: San Francisco Wine Buying and selling Co., Little Vine, Okay&L and William Cross. You may as well discover it at Vino in Oakland. Observe: The worth might range by a few {dollars}, and a few retailers might run out of stock. I tasted the 2016 Purple Stomach for this story, however many shops are actually carrying the 2017, and it tastes related.
Skylark Purple Stomach North Coast 2016 ($20, 14.5%)
Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine critic. E-mail: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley
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